Vivaan Kapoor secures India’s third LA28 quota with men’s trap silver

Vivaan Kapoor won men's trap silver at the ISSF World Championship, securing India's third shooting quota for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. India also won two medals in men's 25m centre-fire pistol and remained second in the overall standings

Hyderabad: Vivaan Kapoor clinched the men’s trap silver medal at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun on Thursday.

His podium finish secured India’s third overall quota place for the Los Angeles 2028 (LA28) Olympic Games at the ongoing championship.

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Vivaan’s achievement follows earlier quota-winning performances by Jaypal Malviya and Niraj Kumar in Doha. Jaypal opened India’s LA28 quota account by winning silver in the men’s 10m air pistol on November 5. Niraj then added the second quota place on Wednesday with a bronze medal in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions.

Competing at the Lusail Shooting Complex, Vivaan finished level with Kuwait’s Abdulrahman Alfaihan at the top of the leaderboard with 29 hits in the final. In the sudden-death shoot-off for the gold medal, Alfaihan edged past the Indian marksman 3-2. China’s Qi Ying claimed the bronze medal with 22 hits.

Earlier, two Indian shooters advanced to the eight-man medal round following a seven-way tie at 120 out of 125 in qualification. Vivaan qualified in sixth place after hitting six targets in the qualification shoot-off, having registered rounds of 25, 24, 24, 24 and 23. Teammate Udaivir Singh Jaijee also shot 120 (25, 24, 24, 24, 23) and prevailed in a sudden-death shoot-off (3+0) to take the eighth and final qualifying spot. Udaivir placed sixth in the final with 11 hits, exiting behind Great Britain’s Nathan Hales (11) on qualification ranking.

In the men’s trap team event, the Indian trio of Vivaan (120), Udaivir (120) and Zoravar Singh Sandhu (114) narrowly missed out on a medal to finish fourth. India posted a combined total of 354 across five rounds (73, 68, 72, 72, 69), tying with silver medallists Poland and bronze medallists Czechia. However, India settled for fourth place on countback due to a lower final-round score. Kuwait captured the team gold medal with 356. Zoravar finished 55th in the individual qualification standings.

India also celebrated a double podium finish in the men’s 25m centre-fire pistol competition. Ankur Goel won the individual silver medal with a total of 583-19x, shooting 292 in the precision stage and 291 in the rapid stage. Latvia’s Ernests Erbs took the gold medal with 588-24x, while Czechia’s Jindrich Dubovy secured bronze with 582-26x.

Ankur then teamed up with Amanpreet Singh and Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu to win the men’s 25m centre-fire pistol team bronze medal with an aggregate score of 1727-57x. Amanpreet finished ninth in the individual standings with 578-19x, while Rajkanwar placed 23rd with 566-19x. Ukraine won the team gold medal with 1735-47x, ahead of the Republic of Korea, which finished second with 1731-46x.

Following Thursday’s results, India stood second in the overall medal standings with 13 medals, comprising two gold, seven silver and four bronze. China led the table with 27 medals (13 gold, six silver and eight bronze), while the Republic of Korea occupied third place with 10 medals (two gold, five silver and three bronze).